


bittersweet salvation

by sormikleo



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Dragon Mikleo, Gen, M/M, Tainted AU (Tales of Zestiria), Tainted Mikleo, but i wrote this with the thought of their potential and strong feelings for each other being there, but their relationship is definitely strained, there is no established relationship in this fic, you can think of them as just friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-19 21:30:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15518976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sormikleo/pseuds/sormikleo
Summary: An AU in which Sorey never allows Mikleo to become his Sub Lord (with nothing but good intentions), and Mikleo becomes corrupted by malevolence due to the pressure of his own self deprecating thoughts of not being good enough. Sorey has to make a hard decision.





	bittersweet salvation

**Author's Note:**

> written for the drabble week of a zestiria discord i am a part of! the prompt was “tainted.” i hope you enjoy reading it!

Sorey didn’t want to continue.

 

They had been searching for months, and they had finally found him. Part of Sorey had hoped they never would. But that was irrational, right? 

 

Mikleo had turned into a dragon, and it was all his fault. 

 

Sorey could remember their last night together like the back of his hand. Mikleo usually sat next to Sorey’s bedside and read throughout the night, unable to go inside of him like the others would. Sorey had denied his pleas for becoming a Sub Lord repeatedly, afraid for his best friend to have to take on the burden that he did. He wished that he would just go back to Elysia instead of insisting that he stuck by Sorey’s side. Obviously Sorey wanted to be with him, but not like this. The repetitive denial had put a damper on their friendship, and he had never felt farther from Mikleo than he did that night. 

 

Without a word, the water seraph had crawled under the blankets next to Sorey and curled up close to him, almost like they had done when they were kids. Sorey had tried to question him, but all Mikleo did was tell him to be quiet. They didn’t speak at all after that, and Sorey laid there with his arms slung around Mikleo’s shoulders and his face pressed into his hair. It was nice. 

 

When he woke up, Mikleo was gone. 

 

Ignoring his fears, Sorey forced himself to believe that Mikleo wasn’t in trouble. He had told Lailah that he trusted Mikleo not to put himself in any danger -- Mikleo was smarter than that, and he would get himself out if things started looking rough. However, Sorey didn’t actually know what was going on. 

 

Not too long after his disappearance, the team had stumbled upon him deep in an icy ruin. He was hunched over in a corner, horns poking out of his hair and azure wings protruding from his shoulder blades. It was beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time, and Sorey felt like his breath had been punched out of his chest. Of all things, this was not what he had expected. 

 

Mikleo looked like he was in the worst pain that he had ever been in his life. When he noticed the others’ arrival, his expression looked as if he had been stabbed in the chest. They had tried to talk to him calmly, letting him know that they would help him get better by purifying him, but that seemed to send him into a frenzy. 

 

He flew up to the ceiling, trying to get as far away from them as possible, and with tears running down his cheeks, he begged them not to purify him. Sorey had never seen him look so frightened; he couldn’t understand why Mikleo wouldn’t want to be purified. But then Mikleo started screaming desperately about how he didn’t want to go back to being useless, a burden, a  _ liability _ . The claws growing from the tips of his fingers pressed into the front of his tunic and tore at the fabric. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of him. 

 

Sorey understood then what had caused the malevolence to taint him, and it felt like a slap in the face.  _ He  _ had caused this. If only he had just granted Mikleo permission to become his Sub Lord. He truly had no idea how important it was to him, and he felt like a fool. They knew what they had to do, so they got their weapons out and began to fight. Mikleo didn’t do much to them, but because of Sorey’s distress and distraction, he ended up getting away. 

 

After that, they couldn’t afford to focus all of their energy on Mikleo. The Lord of Calamity was still out there, and people still needed saving. They wanted more than anything to help Mikleo, but sometimes outside forces prevented them from getting very far. 

 

But now, here they were, ready to take him on. 

 

Sorey had held onto hope before and tried to make everyone feel the same way too, but they knew that Mikleo was on the way to becoming a dragon. Sorey had hoped they would get to him before that happened, but in reality, it had just been too long since they had last seen him for him to  _ not  _ be one. Sorey had originally believed that there was still some way out there that they could save him, but at this point, he had already had to kill Tiamat, so he knew what he had to do. This was his last mission before heading off to defeat Heldalf, and it almost felt more important. 

 

It was heart-wrenching. 

 

They all made their way up a steep hill, and at the top, there he was. Mikleo was the most stunning dragon Sorey had ever seen. It was hard to believe that malevolence could even create something that looked like that. His scales were as blue as his wings had been, and his violet eyes were still as prominent as ever. 

 

“Mikleo?”

 

As his name softly fell from Sorey’s lips, the dragon let out a growl and braced itself for a fight. They all rushed forward with slashing blades and blinding artes. The fight was decently easier than the others, and it felt almost as if Mikleo  _ wanted  _ to lose. 

 

When the dragon had collapsed to the ground, chilling blue flames ablaze around him, Rose had stepped forward, placing a hand on Sorey’s shoulder and offering to take care of it for him.

 

“No. It has to be me.”

 

Rose nodded and stepped back. Sorey slowly took a few steps forward, before kneeling down in front of Mikleo with a trembling hand as he held out his sword. The dragon stared right back at him, not even attempting to get away or fight back. Tears pooled in Sorey’s eyes, violet eyes meeting green, and with that, he thrusted his blade forward. 

 

“I’m sorry.” 

**Author's Note:**

> are you okay? because i'm not. but anyways, thanks so much for reading! i appreciate it!


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